A year earlier, many of the state’s most powerful Republicans had worked their hearts out helping Giuliani win the mayoral election, only to be stabbed in the back 12 months later.

And now, that sickening feeling of betrayal – the sense that Giuliani for the second time is about to become a Republican Judas – is being felt again.

For over a year, many New York Republicans who should have hated Giuliani for endorsing Cuomo – Bruno, state GOP Chairman William Powers, several upstate and suburban county chairmen – put personal feelings aside to endorse the mayor’s expected Senate campaign, saying that defeating liberal Democratic First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton must come first.

These and other party leaders suffered some painful consequences as a result of their early support of Giuliani because Gov. Pataki and the large coterie of Giuliani haters around him were aggressively promoting Suffolk County U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio in a “stop Giuliani” movement.

When Texas Gov. George W. Bush eventually intervened on Giuliani’s side, Bruno, Powers and the others thought they had finally won.

How wrong it seems they were.

Giuliani’s withdrawal from the Senate race – now put at a 90 percent certainty by many GOP insiders – has brought New York’s Republican Party to the brink of political disaster.

While the mayor will surely insist that a decision to withdraw is “strictly personal” – based on his prostate cancer or his on-going marital problems – or “just a matter between me and my conscience,” it is anything but.

Promises and commitments were made here, and a lot is on the line.

Yes, Republican leaders backed Giuliani because they felt he would be their best candidate for Senate.

But they also backed him because they believed a strong Senate run by Giuliani – who plays well in the often-pivotal suburbs – was essential for the Republican Party to retain control of the state Senate – the most important source of party strength and patronage.

Party leaders also backed Giuliani because they thought his supporters would turn out in such large numbers that they would help the GOP win at least two close races for U.S. Congress and, if Giuliani really ran a strong campaign, perhaps help Gov. Bush carry New York as well.

What’s more, GOP leaders backed Giuliani as an investment in their future.

There has, after all, been a sharp decline in GOP fortunes in recent years, notwithstanding public claims by Republicans to the contrary.

Since 1998, the New York GOP has lost U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato and Attorney General Dennis Vacco, lost control of the Nassau County Legislature and failed to regain control of the Westchester County Legislature.

And Pataki himself, against just token opposition, was able to tally only 51.5 percent of the total vote cast in 1998.

So party leaders are looking to the future, and grim it is indeed.

Their hope was that a U.S. Sen. Rudolph Giuliani, or even a good-effort-but-he-failed Giuliani, could be a strong candidate for governor in 2002 – if Pataki decides, as is possible, not to seek a third term.

Put another way, a last-minute decision by Giuliani to withdraw from the race could cost the New York Republican Party a U.S. Senate seat, control of the state Senate, two congressional seats, and a shot at helping elect a President Bush.

And it will leave the Republican Party without a backup candidate for governor in two years, should Pataki decide not to run.